


A Difference in Definitions

by NoelleAngelFyre



Series: Steal My Heart (It's Already Yours) [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry is surprisingly good at seductions, ColdFlash heavily implied, Feel the flirty fluff, Len can't say no when Barry talks that way, M/M, Mention of Canonical Events, Mentions of jewel heist and other less-than-legal activities, Not Legends of Tomorrow Compliant, Technically pre-slash but there is some shameless flirting going on in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24206860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoelleAngelFyre/pseuds/NoelleAngelFyre
Summary: “Besides,” Barry adds after a minute, “if you left…I’d miss our weekly dates.”“Dates.” Leonard repeats, “…That’s what we’re doing here?”“Well,” Barry pushes himself off the cabinet with an easy stride, “we always meet somewhere high-end, usually with expensive, even lavish, interior design.  We dress for the occasion.  We talk, sometimes for hours, and we give each other an adrenaline rush that’s as good as any orgasm.  What would you call it?”
Relationships: Barry Allen & Leonard Snart, Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Leonard Snart & Mick Rory (background)
Series: Steal My Heart (It's Already Yours) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758994
Comments: 16
Kudos: 439





	A Difference in Definitions

**Author's Note:**

> For my fellow ColdFlash lovers, a little morsel to start your weekend off on the right foot. :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just playing in my OTP sandbox.

Beyond the graveyard shift, which itself will be full of rookies, the precinct is empty. There’s a light in the main lobby and in the bull pen. The light which catches Leonard’s immediate attention is up on the second floor, the only one illuminated at present, and the office to which it belongs.

“That might be the slowest I’ve ever seen you move.” He remarks dryly, braced against the open doorframe as he watches Barry type lazily on the keyboard with one hand and shuffle paperwork with the other.

“It’s been a slow night.” Barry doesn’t even look up from the computer screen, “And if you’re looking for something to steal, you’ll come up short. Nothing worth your while in the evidence locker.”

“Cute.” Leonard pushes himself off the metallic frame and strolls inside the lab, “But I don’t settle for cubit zirconium when I can have the princess-cut.”

With a resigned sigh, like he’s figured out Leonard intends to stretch out this visit, Barry pushes back from his desk and turns in his chair to face the older man fully. “You here to shoot the breeze or is there something you want?”

Leonard doesn’t technically answer that, though he suspects the shameless once-over he delivered might have served as much. “Might be going out of town for a while…wanted to get one last tit-for-tat in before I did.”

“Going out of town, huh?” Barry leans back in the chair and folds arms loosely over his chest, “You and Mick hitting up Coast City for the new shipment of rare jewels they just got in?”

He pauses half a second too long for his indifferent shrug to be taken seriously, and he knows it. Barry lifts a single eyebrow like he’s patiently waiting for the real explanation. Leonard holds out for an exceptionally awkward two minutes, then huffs and idly paces the room just to have something to do with his hands. “Alright, fine. We – and by ‘we’ I mean Mick and I along with a handful of you do-gooder tropes – were approached by some time-traveling Brit named Rip Hunter who wants to recruit us to stop some dictator who off’s Rip’s family in 2166. Better?”

“Am I supposed to answer that honestly?”

“You’re in a mood tonight, Scarlet.”

“So are you,” he’s a little surprised Barry didn’t get snippy about throwing the nickname around when someone might overhear, then decides the bigger issue might be their CSI tech having a casual late-night chat with Captain Cold, “I’m gonna call it the ‘colossal idiot’ mood.”

“Such language.”

“I have other words I could use, believe me.” Barry is definitely in a mood tonight, “So, why don’t you explain to me just why you thought this was a good idea.”

“Come, come, Barry,” Leonard pauses to toy at random with some files on one of the cabinets, “surely you’re buzzing with excitement about this. Get Mick and I out of your hair for a while…and you get the pleasure of saying ‘I told you so’.”

He drops a few stray pens back into the holder, just because he can. “Finally get to make a hero out of me.”

“Not that you’re asking for my approval,” he hears Barry shove himself out of the desk and start cleaning up the lab, “but if you were…you don’t have it.”

…Well. This is…not how he was expecting the conversation to go.

“So, all these years…you spinning yarns about how much good there is in me, being better than my past, blah-blah-blah…” he watches Barry move, much slower than needed, around the room, “…All of it was just an excuse to hear the sound of your own voice?”

“There is a _distinct_ difference,” Barry slams a cabinet closed, with enough force that it wobbles, and turns sharply to face Leonard again, “between telling you that you’re not the ice-cold heartless villain and telling you to jump a time ship to take care of someone else’s problem when doing so contains a very strong likelihood that you’ll probably end up dead.”

“Why, Barry, don’t tell me you’re getting sentimental.” He goes for extra sarcasm, “People might think you care.”

“And some people,” the kid didn’t even blink, “would know I care.”

Yeah. Definitely not the way he thought the evening would go.

“…and has it occurred to you,” Leonard blinks himself out of the thought, not even aware Barry was still speaking, “that maybe he hasn’t told you _everything_ about this mission? Because that’s the point of a sales pitch: you never talk about the fine print. You just hook the buyer in and let them hang themselves with the little details after they’re already in and can’t back out.”

A legitimate frown passes over Leonard’s face, “Getting a little cynical, aren’t we?”

“Well, one of us has to be and it clearly isn’t you.”

The frown deepens, “Barry, this isn’t like you. What’s going through that head of yours?”

“Well, I’m sorry, Snart, but I’m not going to do a cartwheel around the lab when you tell me about this grand plan to become a hero – either because you’re looking for a new fix or because you just want to shut me up about the good in you.” Barry leans heavily into the cabinet, arms tight across his chest, and pushes out a breath that sounds like half a curse, “And I refuse to believe this is actually what you want.”

“Why don’t we back up to why, exactly, this isn’t what you want?” he matches Barry’s pose, braced against the edge of the kid’s desk, “You wanted me to be a hero, just like you…right?”

“Like I said, telling you there’s good in you doesn’t translate the same way.” Leonard isn’t entirely sure if he believes that, or if the kid is backtracking, but he refrains from splitting hairs for the moment, “What I wanted – what I’ve always wanted – was for you to see yourself the way I see you.”

“And how does the Flash see Captain Cold?”

The kid’s mouth quirks downward in obvious annoyance. “You’re too good at this game to stop now. Too smart. Too skilled. Better than any thief in the city – maybe even the country. You said it yourself: you love the game and you’re very good at it. But you’re not heartless, and you don’t see my attachment to other people as a weakness. Not anymore. Not when you do the same for Lisa. If you’re gonna call my need to save people a weakness, then your need to protect Lisa is also a weakness and I know you’d shoot me if I ever said as much.”

Valid point.

“Besides,” Barry adds after a minute, “if you left…I’d miss our weekly dates.”

“Dates.” Leonard repeats, “…That’s what we’re doing here?”

“Well,” Barry pushes himself off the cabinet with an easy stride, “we always meet somewhere high-end, usually with expensive, even lavish, interior design. We dress for the occasion. We talk, sometimes for hours, and we give each other an adrenaline rush that’s as good as any orgasm. What would you call it?”

…unfairly valid point.

“So what we’re saying here,” Leonard hasn’t move as a point of pride, but he doesn’t stop Barry when the kid sidles up right in his personal space, “is you and I have been ‘dating’,” he puts extra emphasis on the word, like he’s mocking Barry’s skewed perspective, but the kid doesn’t even blink, “for over a year and it would just break your tender little heart if I suddenly dumped you for time-traveling do-gooders.”

“Damn straight.” Barry answers with a cocky little tilt of the head which Leonard finds absolutely adorable, “I’m the only do-gooder in your life.”

“Why, Barry Allen…are you jealous?”

“That would imply a hefty dose of insecurity,” and the kid is not wanting for security, not with that cocky little grin and the way he leans in to cage Leonard against the desk between long arms, hips popping out in a way that should not be as sexy as it is, “and we both know no one can satisfy you the way I can.”

This is teasing into the realm of dirty talk, and they’re not even sleeping together. Who knew the Scarlet Speedster was halfway decent at spur-of-the-moment seductions?

“If I _did_ stay,” he lets his eyes shamelessly run a couple times over the front-view, particularly the teasing sliver of skin left open by his collar, “we’d have to up our game. Can’t risk you getting bored.”

“You could always hit up Coast City.” Leonard backtracks through their conversation and smirks a little; the news about a fresh shipment wasn’t news, not when he makes a point to have ears everywhere, but the fact Barry threw it out there like a fresh bone is a nice touch, “I’ll let you guys have a head start. See how much you can make off with before I get there.”

“Does that mean we get to keep the fruits of our labor?” Leonard feels a little spark, like getting too close to an electrical socket, when Barry’s thigh brushes his.

“Depends on how good of a show you put on.”

“Oooh…high stakes.” Oddly enough, now that they’ve officially labeled this dysfunctional mess of a relationship, it’s extraordinarily easy to run wild with it, “You do know how to sweet-talk me, _Flash_.”

Barry’s smile is a perfect balance of cocky swagger and charming sweetness – because no matter how well the kid can wear a smirk, it always has that tender edge to it – and Leonard indulges himself by running a thumb along the lower curve. Barry doesn’t stop him, and Leonard wonders just what else he could get away with at this point.

“So, Len,” and _oh_ that sounds so much better than his bastard father’s surname, “do we have ourselves a date?”

“See you in Coast City, Scarlet.”


End file.
